Skip to main content

COUNTER TRADE

Counter trade, a modern variant of the age old system of trade by barter, has emerged as a new feature of economic relationship. For a nation which is suffering from a drastic reduction in its foreign exchange earnings and trade arrears with Western export credit agencies, counter trade has the attraction of providing goods for the domestic market without draining the scarce foreign exchange. The low credit rating which the country has in the international capital market and the unwillingness of the government to adhere strictly to the international monetary fund's supervised adjustment programme also favour counter trade in the system.
    However, there are grounds for insisting that counter trade should be used with caution. Counter trade is a form of gambling. As with every other forms of trade by barter, one partner is inevitably going to be better off than the other in the end. This will be determined by what monetary value is assigned to the goods exchanged and how constant this remains within the duration of the transaction. For example, if the agreement is based upon the current price of oil, a subsequent price decrease will make Africa exchange more barrels of oil for the same value of goods, while an increase in price will yield the opposite effect.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

READING AND UNDERSTANDING

All reading is geared to understanding. There would be no point in reading if we did not understand what we are reading. However there are many different obstacles in the way of easy understanding of a passage. It is your task as a reader to actively seek to break down the barriers to understanding.    One block to understanding is caused by references in the passage to things that are outside it. Pronoun are the first examples of words that refer to people and objects. Sometimes, it is easy to follow the reference at other times, it is more difficult. Look at the opening sentence of the passage you've just read that begins this way  "She was waiting for us:small, dowdy, dirty..."  Who was waiting? Who was the person waiting for? (Perhaps you would also like to know why she was waiting.)Answers to these questions will surely help you to understand and thus follow the reference. The first thing to do is to ask questions like the ones we have just asked and to read t...

Why women have sex

Why do women have sex? And why do women have sex without commitment? It might be easy to assume that a woman’s sexuality is like a man’s, but if that were true, why would so many men still believe that there are good girls for marrying and fun girls for, well, fun? (That double standard is a myth, by the way.) Before you label her one thing or the other, consider her motives for hooking up with you. We all love a good throw down every now and again because, let’s be real, it’s a great time. But guys, here’s a little secret: Sex is more than just an evening (or afternoon or morning) of fun. In fact, according to science, getting busy on the regular can benefit your overall health in some pretty major ways.   Below are some reasons women have sex: Sex lowers your blood pressure One study shows that sexual intercourse specifically—as opposed to masturbation or other forms of sex play—has a significant impact on lowering systolic blood pressure (the first number on your blood pre...

Nature of life

Nature , in the broadest sense, is the natural, physical, or material world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science . Although humans are part of nature, human activity is often understood as a separate category from other natural phenomena.     Within the various uses of the word today, "nature" often refers to geology and wildlife . Nature can refer to the general realm of living plants and animals, and in some cases to the processes associated with inanimate objects—the way that particular types of things exist and change of their own accord, such as the weather and geology of the Earth . It is often taken to mean the " natural environment" or wilderness —wild animals, rocks, forest, and in general those things that have not been substantially altered by human intervention, or which persist despite human intervention. For exa...